A. Field of the Invention
This relates to video systems in general and the ability to illuminate shadows to increase the effectiveness of video-based intelligence surveillance systems. The purpose of the video-based intelligence surveillance system is to track and detect moving objects in a defined field of view. Oftentimes shadows will skew the results and give false images. The purpose of this device is to eliminate those self shadows, which is defined as a shadow generated by an object of interest whether the object of interest is a human being or an inanimate object such as a car or a train, for example.
B. Prior Art
There are other prior art references to intelligent video systems and the detection of a variety of different apparatus and methods. A representative example can be found at Baumgart, U.S. Pat. No. 6,118,886. Baumgart is an automatic target recognition apparatus, having a video camera for producing a digitized image signal and representing an image containing objects wherein the objects are to be recognized if they meet predefined criteria. The digitized image signal is processed within a video analysis, using appropriate software.
Another image processing center and method for recognizing and removing shadows from the image of a monitored scene is included in Osbourn, U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,536. This clearly defines the object, which is being studied.
Another example in the prior art is Mitsuse, U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,828, which is an image-forming apparatus.